Cabane à Sucre
by Rocky and CG
Summary: Canada invites Prussia over to the "Sugar Shack" Festival.


"_Cabane à sucre._"

"What did you just say?" Prussia asked in a tone usually reserved for lottery winners. "You're telling me there's a whole maple _festival_?"

"Yes," came the mild manner voice over the cell phone. "The _cabane à sucre _festival is going on and Kumajiro and I…"

"Who are you?" The small polar bear could be heard over the phone.

"Canada." The voice answered him back before returning to Prussia. "Well, we're wondering if you'd like to come?"

"Yes!" Prussia shouted. "Oh my god, yes! I'll be right there!" Before Canada could respond, Prussia closed his cell phone and grabbed some clean clothes . "Maple maple maaaaapppppple~" he happily sang while a familiar small yellow bird flew over and sat on his head. After lacing up his boots, Prussia got his jacket on, yelled "Later!" to his brother, and headed over to Canada's house.

"Prussia!" Canada shouted, which wasn't much louder than a normal speaking voice, and waved him over.

"Yo, Canada," Prussia called out while his boots crunched the snow underneath him. "Good to see ya!" He slapped Canada hard on the back, earning an "Oof", and then started petting Kumajiro. "Ah man, I love touching this guy; he's so soft. No wonder you carry him everywhere."

"Mmm, I don't know who this is," Kumajiro said as Prussia scratched behind his ears, "but it feels nice."

Canada smiled at the cute scene and looked up to Prussia's head where the bird rested. "I guess we both like cute animals."

"_Ja! _And ya know what else I like?"

"What's that?'

Prussia jerked his thumb towards the banner of the festival. "Your maple syrup!"

Canada closed his eyes and softly chuckled. "I'm happy you do."

"So what are we waiting for?" Prussia started walking and Canada followed. Prussia cheered in anticipation. "We're gonna get such a sugar rush!"

"It's funny you mention that, because the festival actually translates to 'sugar shack'. It's also not just syrup, but all sort of products you can make with maple."

Prussia eyes widen. "There's more to maple than syrup?"

"Hey, there's a bird on that guy's head," Kumajiro commented.

"Yes, there is," Canada answered them both. "There's maple candy, maple frosting, maple fudge…" Prussia mouth watered as Canada listed off the delicious treats. "Ah, but maple isn't all about sweets. It can even be spicy or some dishes can even have mushroom or potato flavor."

"Maple potatoes?"

"Haha, yeah it does sound strange at first, but no more strange than sausages with maple syrup in them."

Prussia swallowed. "Maple sausages?"

"Oh yes, there's even malt and rye, so we can make beer."

"Maple beer?"

"Yes and…" Canada didn't finish as Prussia grabbed his hand and dragged him quickly to the festival.

Soon the two plus pets were sitting at one of the long tables enjoying a nice lunch.

"Ah man." Prussia took another swig of his maple beer to wash down the maple sausage. "This is so good."

"I'm glad. I like this place too. Not only is it old fashioned," he gestured to fact it was just a big wooden shack, "but they also like to try new things," he said as he set his mug of maple cappuccino down.

"MmmMmmm." Canada looked over to Kumajiro who had finished his maple frosted cupcake.

"You want the rest of my maple danish, Kumajiro?"

Kuamjiro reached his paws out. "Yes." and took the offered pastry.

"Peep peep," chirped the bird on Prussia's head, and it flew down on the table.

"You want some too?" Kumajiro asked the little bird, and it chirped back. "Okay." He broke off a small piece and gave it to the bird who happily pecked at it.

Canada watched in awe at the utter cuteness of the scene. "Prussia, you're so lucky to have such a cute bird sit on your head."

Prussia smirked. "Yeah, cute things dig me, and I dig them."

Canada folded his arms on the table and laid his head on them to get a bird's eye view of the bird. "I wish I could get it to sit on my head."

Prussia looked at Canada and then at the bird. He plucked the piece of pastry away from the bird and planted it on Canada's head. Before Canada could protest about having the sticky goods on his hair, the bird hopped up and over and continued to eat atop Canada's head.

"Ahhhh…" Canada willed himself to stay perfectly still and soon the bird, upon finishing his meal, sat down and nestled himself into Canada's hair. "So cute," he whispered. "He's a little warm too."

"Really? I never noticed." Then again Prussia never noticed the bird sitting on his head in the first place. "Hold on." Prussia pulled out his cell phone and took a picture.

"Can you send that to my email?" Canada asked.

A few beeps later. "Done."

Canada smiled again. "Thank you."

"Hey no problem. Us former nations have to watch out for each other."

"Umm…I'm still a nation."

"Huh? You are? I mean! Yeah! Of course you are. I was just testing you. Uhhh…errr…Hey! Let's see if we can get the bird to sit on Kumajiro next."

"That'd be so cute."

"Yep!" Prussia sat up. "I'll go get something to bait it." It didn't take long for Prussia to buy another cupcake from the vendor, take a bite for himself, and sat back down at the table.

"I have to say, Prussia, your French is really good."

Prussia laughed. "It has to be otherwise how the hell else am I gonna know if France is cussing me out."

"Oh right, you two are friends."

"Uhh…" Prussia glanced back at nothing and back. "Yeah…" He took a bit of cake and sat it on Kumajiro's head.

"Hmm?" Kumajiro looked up, but didn't disturb the morsel. They waited for the bird to hop over and eat the sweet. And waited. The bird blinked a few times, not bothering moving from its spot, and started cleaning one of its wings.

"C'mon, ya bird, get on the bear's head." Prussia held his phone up impatiently, ready to take the shot.

The bird chirped a few times before attending to his other wing.

"I suppose he's full…" Canada meekly suggested.

"Tsk. Fine then." Prussia put his phone away and swallowed the rest of the cupcake in one bite. "AhhmmnnhneERK!"and he started coughing. Canada immediately started smacking Prussia's back, trying to help him dislodge the food. Eventually succeeding.

"Ha," Cough, cough. "haha" cough cough, "that was intense." The red faced Prussia wiped some tears away from his eyes.

"You okay, Prussia?"

"Y-ye," cough cough, "yeah…" Prussia grabbed his beer and washed it down his throat. "We done here?" he asked acting as if his hacking fit never happened.

"Oh, sure. Umm, I guess we could go check out the maple trees next."

"Sounds good to me" Prussia reach over and picked up Kumajiro, who at first protested, before holding the little bear to his chest the same way Canada always did. "Let's trade for now."

"That sounds fair," Canada agreed and the two walked outside. Once out, Prussia spotted a small group clamored around an old wood stove in front of the shack.

"What are they doing over there?" he asked, confused as to why a worker was pouring boiled sap over the pure fresh snow. "That's wasteful."

"Actually, they're making maple toffee. The snow will chill the sap and then you'll get a yummy soft treat. Did you want to try some?"

"I want some," Kumajiro said.

"Do you now?" Prussia grinned while looking down at the bear. "Okay." He put him down. "There you go, pal." and Kumajiro went over to wait patiently for the toffee to harden. At least that was the plan until the small children in the group saw him and, with a collective gasp, immediately started touching and petting him.

Canada and Prussia couldn't help but smile happily at the amazed children fussing over the fuzzy polar bear. Though, some parents were a little worried.

"If that's the baby bear, where's it's mama?"

"Oh, he's mine, ma'am. Don't worry, Kumajiro is very friendly." Canada smiled.

Once learning the name, and their parent's wariness eased, the children made a bigger commotion over Kumajiro.

"Kumajiro, I like your name."

"Kumajiro, you're such a pretty bear."

"Kumajiro, I love you."

"I want a pet like Kumajiro."

"Mom, can we get a pet like Kumajiro?"

"No."

Kumajiro, himself, didn't seem to mind the attention at all. He sat quietly, his little eyes closed, and enjoyed it. He didn't even complain when some children got a little carried away and ended up pulling his fur. Prussia got more pictures on his cell phone.

Soon, the toffee reached its right consistency and given out to everyone as well as pickles.

"Pickles?" Prussia asked holding one up.

"Maple toffee is very sweet. The pickles help counter balance the sugar."

Prussia looked back at the pickle and maple toffee in his hand. "Really?" He blinked again at it before taking a bite out of the toffee. "Mmm! That is sweet!" He finished off the bite and crunched on the pickle next. "Weird. It works."

Soon after they finished their treats, and bidding the sad children farewell, they found a stall selling coffee and sleigh rides. The four of them hopped on and the driver shook the reigns to the horses. The slow trot through the snow driven path gave them a chance to enjoy the crisp air and the sight of the forest preparing for spring.

Prussia wrapped his hands around his coffee and shiver. He then brought his fingers up to his mouth, in a V shape, and pretended he was blowing smoke from a cigarette. The heat from his breath produced a nice patch of steam. "Damn it's cold out here."

Canada smiled at Prussia's childish act. "It's actually pretty…" Prussia jumped and jerked his head, startled, towards Canada. "Are you alright, Prussia?"

"Y-Yeah." He didn't want to admit he had forgotten Canada was there. "So, er, what did you want to say?"

"Ah, I was just thinking the cold isn't so bad when you have a friend to enjoy it with. Thank you for coming with me to the festival, Prussia."

"Heh, yeah." Prussia grinned. "You should feel honored to have the amazing me come here. I mean, I had fun and got lotsa cute pics."

Canada chuckled. "I'm glad."

Prussia turned his head away. "Um, yeah. Ah, Th….umm, yeah."

Canada kept his smile and gaze on Prussia. "It just gets kind of lonely when the others forget about you."

A sniffle could be heard on Prussia's side. "I wouldn't know a thing about that. 'Sides! It's awesome to be alone."

"Are you crying, Prussia?"

"No!" Prussia wiped his eyes. "It's just really fucking cold out here!"

Canada smiled again and bunched himself, Kumajiro, and the bird against Prussia. "It is warmer now?" he asked in the group hug.

Prussia wrapped his arms around everyone too. "Yeah…It is."

AN: Written for ~everyonescrazynotme on DeviantArt who is a doll and does such cute fan art for my other Hetalia fics.


End file.
